NOTES ON COLLECTING, ETC. 1 o9 



reads tliese carefull}^ ho will come to tlie conclusion that his cUsparaginj; 

 " story" (as he calls it) of one of our best practical field-entomologists 

 (onl^^ recently passed away from us) is at the present time })articnlarly 

 ill-chosen and shows, to say the least of it, very bad taste. — Geo. 

 Elisiia, 122, Shepherdess Walk, N. March Ut, 1895. 



Notes fkom the Exchange Baskets. — Does the male Cheimatobia 

 hriunata carry tlie female when in copula ? — Mr. Tutt writes on Jan. 28th : 

 — " The note l)y Mr. Mason, re Cheimatohia hrumata (ante, p. 92), is 

 very interesting. I have repeatedly seen it asserted that female speci- 

 mens of this species have been taken at lamps, but I have always 

 doubted the assertions that the male carried the female there. 'Jliere 

 is no reason why the male should not do so, except that, so far as my 

 experience goes, the female, if disturbed when in copula, either drags 



the male after her or they both fall to the gi-ound." Dr. Freer 



CRugeley) writes on Jan. 30th:— "I can corroborate Mr. Mason's 

 observations as to male C. hrumata carrying females. On a tree-trunk 

 the female will drag the male all over the place, but the male is able 

 to carry a female quite ten yards, as I have found them both at my 



lamp which I place in an upper room." Mr. Flnlay (INIorpeth) 



writes on Feb. 25th : — " As regards C. hrumata flying in cop., I should 

 like to have the opinions of thoroughly practical collecting entomo- 

 logists on the subject, as I have seen it repeatedly stated in horticul- 

 tural journals, and newspapers, that the male C. hrumata carries the 

 female. In all my collecting experience I have never seen a pair of 

 moths flying in copula, and I have taken hundreds of pairs in that 

 condition ; generally when a pair of moths in cop. are disturbed they 

 fall to the ground and remain motionless for a time, or free themselves 



from each other." 'Mr. Tutt writes on March 1st : — " The proof (?) 



that Dr. Freer advances re the male C. hrumata carrying the female 

 appears to me to be of much the same character as that on which 

 the general assumption that this is really so has been based ; that is, 

 the male and female have been found on lamps, at lighted windows, 

 &c., in copula, and it has at once been assumed that this di.stance from 

 the ground has been reached by the male carrying the female there. 

 The first notion is, of course, that the}^ must have flown, but the 

 assumption api)ears to me to be so directly contrary to our knowledge 

 of the habits of the insect, that I want to hear some direct evidence — 

 not mere statements as to the unlikely positions in which they have 

 been found, but the evidence of entomologists who have observed the 

 male in the act of flying to light whilst the female has been attached 

 to him. We do not, of course, trouble ourselves about the habits of 

 such common insects, with the result that when a simple ([uestion is 

 asked which everyone thinks everyone else should know, no one knows 

 anvthing whatever about it." 



^OTICES AND REVIEWS. 



Glimpses of Ameuican Entomology. — The Twentij-fifth Annual 

 Report of the Entomoloijical Society of Ontario, 1894. [Published by 

 Warwick Bros, and Kutter, 08, and 70 Front Street West, Toronto], 

 Of all the entomological publicatiuns that come to us from America we 

 must own that the modest little volumes published by this society 



